


the timing is right

by haipollai



Category: Captain America (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2013-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 20:42:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haipollai/pseuds/haipollai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Bucky makes his way  into the kitchen. He feels tired and slow, worn out from the last mission even after eight hours of sleep. Steve hadn't been there when he'd crashed into bed and Bucky wasn't sure he'd be there when he woke up. Captain America didn't really have a schedule.</i>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <i>Except Steve is there, humming along to softly playing music, wearing some faded old sweats and an army t-shirt. The sun is dipping below the horizon and everything is warm and gold.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	the timing is right

Bucky makes his way into the kitchen. He feels tired and slow, worn out from the last mission even after eight hours of sleep. Steve hadn't been there when he'd crashed into bed and Bucky wasn't sure he'd be there when he woke up. Captain America didn't really have a schedule.

Except Steve is there, humming along to softly playing music, wearing some faded old sweats and an army t-shirt. The sun is dipping below the horizon and everything is warm and gold.

Steve twists and sees Bucky standing there, not quite in the kitchen. Not yet sure if he's welcome. But Steve smiles and he glows. Bucky always feels like a moth around Steve, just forever drawn further and further in. He's not sure he knows the way out anymore, if he ever did. Steve's light makes him human. It has since he was sixteen with too much anger to know what to do with.

Steve's arms open for him, let Bucky step in close and curl around him. Bucky touches his lips to Steve's neck, feeling his steady pulse. It seems silly after so many years being back now, but he likes the reassurance that this isn't just a dream. He's truly here with the one man he never thought he'd get back. Steve kisses his temple and his cheek and when Bucky tips his head back, Steve's lips are there against his.

The music is still playing and Steve leads them in a slow, easy sway. Steve is following the music but Bucky focuses on the steady rhythm of his heart. It's a cliche, it's all a cliche but Bucky figures that's what his entire life has been so why stop now.

His fingers creep under Steve's shirt. Not for anything sexual, though it would be so easy. The serum makes some of Steve's reactions wonderfully predictable. Maybe the long nap has left him disoriented, he just needs to come back down to earth. Steve's holding on, so he knows it'll be okay.

He almost trips over his feet when Steve takes his hand and spins him. Steve pulls him back to him with a grin, kissing Bucky again with a little more heat.

"How are you?" Steve murmurs.

"Awake. Alive." Bucky scrapes his teeth over Steve's collarbone. Whatever he feels, good or bad, will pass. He's learning that focusing on it is a waste of time. Any time he tried to grip his past or future it got torn away from him.

"Sorry I wasn't here this morning."

"'S ok. I'm sure the cat really needed to be saved from that tree."

Steve grins even as he pinches Bucky's side. "Don't be an ass. The cat was really stuck."

"Oh yea?" Bucky curls his arms around Steve's neck, grinning up at him. "It's a good thing Captain America was there, saving the day." Steve's smile softens and leans in to kiss him again.

"The fight against the bad guys went well too," Steve murmurs.

"So are you saying it's my turn to treat you to dinner?" Bucky teases, slipping away from Steve to get a drink of water. Steve shrugs nonchalantly. It makes his t-shirt ride up and gather at his waist and Bucky can't help but stare at the strip of exposed skin.

"We'd have to put on real pants."

"To go out with Captain America on my arm? Might be worth it."

Steve drifts closer again, his hands barely ghosting over Bucky's stomach. He looks like he's going to say something, just pausing to put together the words. Bucky stares down at his hands, tracing the line of muscles under Steve's skin, he can't watch his face while he waits. Stupid fears that won't ever go away. "Bucky," Steve murmurs. "What if it's just Steve Rogers on your arm?"

A small, choked laugh escapes Bucky and he looks back up, meeting Steve's eyes. "Even better." He pushes himself up onto the counter, erasing the last height difference between them. "People usually try to kill Captain America, would ruin date night." He curls his legs around Steve, pulling him close so they're pressed together. Steve's chuckle vibrates through both of them.

"People try to kill Steve Rogers too," Steve sighs against his lips, not quite kissing. Bucky catches his lower lip between his teeth and tugs lightly, just to get Steve to lean in all the way and kiss him.

"Yea well, I don't want to date Captain America. Was him once, it'd be weird." There's no hiding the way Steve's smile makes him blush and it only seems to make Steve's smile grow. "Pants," he grumbles.

Steve easily picks him off the counter and Bucky instinctively clings tighter. The metal of his arm weighs him down and he can't help the panic that he might be too much, even for Steve. "I got you," Steve murmurs, pressing a kiss to the side of his neck. It works just like Steve knew it would and Bucky eases into his hold, lets Steve take his weight. "Your own mission, it went ok?"

"Without a hitch for once." Steve drops him unceremoniously on the bed and for a moment, Bucky just lays there and watches him move. "Even Johnson couldn't complain."

"Why would Johnson…did you do the op without appropriate approval?" Steve tries to sound stern, Bucky can hear it, but there's a low level of amusement there too.

"Never, you know me Steve, always by the book." He laughs when Steve hits him in the face with a shirt, not able to keep up the serious facade. "It was Hill's idea. Keep it off the books. So we did." He finally sits up, staring blankly at the shirt for a moment, feeling the cotton between his fingers but not quite able to process it. "She'll be grateful we did, once she thinks it through."

Steve's fingers touch his hair, making Bucky flinch. He hadn't even noticed Steve moving. "Come on, get changed. We'll get dinner. Pretend for a few hours we know what normal even is."

Bucky leans forward, resting his head on Steve's stomach. Part of him wants to drag Steve into bed, to get his cock out and suck until Steve is an incoherent mess. A reminder that Bucky's hands can do more then kill. But Steve doesn't deserve to be used like that and trying to do something normal is appealing. Even if the illusion only lasts a short while.

Steve waits, patient as possible until Bucky is ready to get up. "Love you," he whispers into Bucky's ear.

"You giant fucking sap." Which is as good as 'i love you too' and from Steve's smile he knows. Later, Bucky will say the words over and over against Steve's skin until they're burned there and nothing can take them away. "Let me get changed." Steve smirks and takes a few steps back, watching appreciatively as Bucky strips out of his wrinkled clothes, down to his briefs.

"Here." He holds out a pair of jeans for Bucky which Bucky recognizes immediately. Steve's told him before how he likes the way they fit over his ass. So Bucky takes them and turns to slowly pull them on. He knows it's mean, teasing Steve right before they're supposed to leave, but it's the little things, like Steve's pained groan and the fingers that curl into the belt loops to pull him against Steve's body that remind Bucky where he is. Who he is. "When we get home-"

"You can do whatever you want to me," Bucky interrupts, easily twisting away. "But first, I was promised a date with Steve Rogers on my arm."

Steve slips his arm through Bucky's. "Yes you were. Hate to break a promise to you." Bucky entwines his fingers with Steve's, squeezing tightly. He lets Steve lead him out of their apartment, out to the city. The world is alive around them, with Steve's arm around his shoulders and his metal hand hidden in Steve's back pocket, Bucky thinks this is what normal is supposed to feel like.


End file.
